Nearly 60 miles of large sewer lines are on the docket for repair or replacement. DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond has designated the majority of the cost to the Snapfinger sewer basin, which has experienced 21.8 million gallons of spillage or 91% of the county’s total spill volume.

EPA Chief Andrew Wheeler has been working with the County to secure a $265 million loan through the EPA’s Water and Infrastructure and Finance Innovation Act to help pay for the repairs as a symbol of the agency’s commitment to help clean the environment. The County also recently applied for about $340 million in additional loans to fund the upcoming sewer repairs and improvements.

Repairing this portion of the basin has been an urgent issue for TSCID as new businesses have not been able to connect to the aging pipes, which has discouraged development and investment. The new sewer system will have a great economic impact on TSCID, improving our ability to expand and open new businesses.

Learn more about the sewer repair and 1,900 jobs this project will create in this Atlanta Journal-Constitution article.

The TSCID community was saddened to learn of Bill Probst’s passing on October 7, 2020.

“Bill Probst was the man who created the Smoke Rise community,” said Larry Callahan, founding chairman of Stone Mountain CID. “It provided the executive housing for many of the leaders of the original businesses that located in Stone Mountain Industrial Park in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. He was a man of vision and great organization. The trunk of his car served as his office and it included file boxes with surveys and draft contracts for every available parcel of land in Smokerise. If any conversation about a purchase turned serious, he was prepared to take the next step and move toward a closing. The business community owes him a debt of gratitude. May he rest in peace.”

With a career of more than 55 years as a land surveyor and landscape architect, Bill was a pillar of the community and tremendous advocate for the improvement and development of the district. He demonstrated his dedication by founding and leading the boards of many organizations such as the Smoke Rise Corporation, Smoke Rise Chateau Development, Rotary Club in Decatur and was instrumental in bringing MARTA to the Atlanta area when serving as the Vice Chairman of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority.

“Bill Probst was an exemplary citizen in the truest sense. Possessed of a brilliant and active mind all his life, he was the original visionary for Smoke Rise. As he developed neighborhoods and built hundreds of homes, he returned quality and value for every dollar entrusted to him,” said Tucker Mayor Frank Auman. “And from what he earned over his lifetime, he gave back to the community. He dedicated untold hours of his personal time to community initiatives, and property and money to projects that would for generations benefit the area he loved. There is no replacing a Bill Probst – we can only hope his example will inspire others to follow in his path.

Bill was a generous man of action and will be missed. Our thoughts are with his family. Learn more about Bill Probst in his Atlanta Journal-Constitution obituary.

The 640,000 square foot robotics fulfillment center bordering TSCID is operational. At full capacity, the Stone Mountain/Highway 78 facility is set to employ more than 1,000 workers.

“The Amazon robotics fulfillment center is the first of its kind in Georgia, and we are excited to see them open and ship their first packages,” said Gwinnett County Commission Chair Charlotte Nash in a news release. “This project has created a number of jobs, and will continue to be a catalyst for future development in this region.”

Learn more about Amazon’s expansion into Georgia in this Atlanta Business Chronicle article.